THE HISTORY OF DECOYS. 33 



tion of decoys to the Low Dutch ; but it would seem that the art was 

 at that period very imperfectly understood, though he speaks of 

 large numbers of duck, mallard, widgeon, and teal being 1 taken in the 

 " winter-time" by decoy. The author of the " Encyclopaedia Metro- 

 politana," in allusion to the panthera and argumentum, which were 

 used by the wild-fowler of the thirteenth century, speaks of the 

 latter, as probably appertaining to a decoy ; but there is no 

 authority for such an assertion. The argumentum appears to have 

 been a pipe or tunnel of net-work, with which the ancient fowler 

 captured both land and water-fowl, by simply driving them into it ; but 

 there is not the smallest trace of evidence to prove that the birds were 

 decoyed or enticed; on the contrary, all the authorities tend to 

 show that land and water-fowl were driven into the argumentum.* 



The method of forming the original decoy-pipe was by thrusting 

 flexible rods into the bank, on either side of the channel, and bending 

 them over so as to form an arch; the upper ends being bound together 

 in pairs all the way up the pipe, those at the entrance being much the 

 largest and widest span ; and so, gradually becoming smaller and 

 narrower towards the tail end of the pipe. The poles so bent and 

 fastened were then covered with netting, and thus a cylindrical 

 passage was formed, after the same manner as a modern decoy, but 

 in a rougher and less elaborated style. The reed-screens were placed 

 obliquely, and employed in a manner precisely similar to those in our 

 present system ; and at the exit of the pipes, extra reed-fences were 

 set up for the purpose of screening the fowler and his operations from 

 the sight of the birds. 



In further proof of the imperfect manner in which the art was then 

 understood, it is not mentioned by the authorities referred to, that the 

 dog is an indispensable assistant to the decoyer, but merely that 

 " Some train up a whelp for this sort of fowling, f and teach him to 

 compass the reed screens, and show himself "behind the birds." 

 This assertion must be erroneous, because the part which the dog 

 enacts is in front of the birds : they must be enticed a certain distance 

 up the pipe before they can be driven. Willughby is evidently 

 wrong in his notion that " the dog terrifies the birds and drives them 

 forward ;" yet his subsequent remarks would seem to suggest that he 

 knew something of the art, for he adds, " Those behind him he allures 

 and tolls forward, they following him, to gaze at him, as a new 

 and strange object/' 



* Vide ante, p. 7. f Willughby. 



F 



